Malicious Mobile Code

What Is Malicious Mobile Code?

Malicious mobile code (MMC) is any software program designed to move from computer to computer and network to network, in order to intentionally modify computer systems without the consent of the owner or operator. MMC includes viruses, Trojan horses, worms, script attacks, and rogue Internet code. The intentional part of the definition is important. Design flaws in the Microsoft Windows operating system are responsible for more data loss than all the malicious code put together, but Windows wasn’t intentionally designed to destroy your data and crash your system. And it certainly doesn’t sneak on your hard drive without permission to get there. MMC used to mean DOS computer viruses, Trojans, and worms. Today, you have to add all harmful programs created with scripting languages and empowered by Internet technologies: macro viruses, HTML, Java applets, ActiveX, VBScript, JavaScript, and instant messaging. There are even viruses that infect Windows help files. Today, simply scanning executable files and boot sectors isn’t enough.

There is a technological war going on. There are good guys and bad guys. Every second of every day, tens of thousands of pieces of MMC are trying to break into some place they shouldn’t be, delete data, and mess up the day of many fine people who are just trying to work. Mischievous hackers write malicious code and release it in to the unsuspecting world. People lose data and productive time as bugs are discovered and removed. ...